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Now, Vidhan Sabha panel smells a road scam

Thursday, 17 December 2009 11:30 administrator
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Indian Express 17.12.2009

Now, Vidhan Sabha panel smells a road scam

People

Members of the Vidhan Sabha committee at the meeting at the Circuit House
After the fake bill scam, it seems that poor road quality scam is also going to rock the the Municipal Corporation soon. The reason is obvious: on the second day of Vidhan Sabha committee’s meeting, the Municipal Corporation and other local bodies department officers were grilled. The committee members checked the road quality of Tajpur road, Barewal road and few other areas and found gross anomalies.

The fuming members have sought record of the past three years of road construction from MC. The records will have to be given by January 31 and the Vidhan Sabha committee will come with its report by February end. “The guilty will not be spared. Many officers are likely to be indicted in this poor roads quality scam,” the members told Newsline.

The committee members did not deny that they had received complaints of many other roads as well which had broken just after 2-6 months of metalling. “This will expose scam worth crores, but let the records come before us first. Today was only an oral discussion,” said a member of the committee.

Apart from this, they even checked the pollution level in Buddha Nallah also. However they mentioned that after the installation of common effluent treatment plants, this problem would be solved to a great extent. The authorities have sought details of plantation drive in the city as well. Because they even smelled a rat in the purchase of plants and actual plantation. “Green cover in the city is not adequate, so records have been sought,” said the members.

Apart from this, details of the encroachments in the city, the cases pending in High Court etc have also been sought.

Virsa Singh Valtoha along with other MLAs was present in the meeting, which was attended by the MC commissioner A.K Sinha, Mayor Hakam Singh Giaspura and many other officials of corporation, sewerage board, pollution board and a few other departments.

Panel admits grey areas

The committee members also admitted that they were not working up to the mark and hence were not able to tighten the noose around various departments. The members stated that regular interaction with the departments and their monitoring was a must to check the loopholes.

Last Updated on Thursday, 17 December 2009 11:33
 

Caught in ruckus, MC House blinks to approve fire academy

Monday, 07 December 2009 09:50 administrator
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Indian Express 7.12.2009

Caught in ruckus, MC House blinks to approve fire academy

In a haste to end a recent House Meet, the councillors passed an agenda to set up a fire academy in the city without due discussion.

The agenda was the last one to be taken up just after the discussion on the exemption given to Congress councillor Devinder Singh Babla from appearing in the House. Due to the ruckus created in the House, the agenda was passed without discussion.

The Mayor after her study tour to Gujarat had written a note to the Municipal Commissioner to get an agenda prepared for setting up a fire academy. The Commissioner constituted a committee consisting of Additional Commissioner P K Sharma, chairman of Fire and Emergency Services Committee Arshad Khan and Station Fire Officer M L Sharma to visit Delhi and study the fire academy of the Capital.

The committee observed that the fire academy in Delhi was set up on four acres of land and the total cost of the project was Rs 4 crore excluding the cost of land, vehicle, equipment, etc. While the strength of staff in the Delhi academy was 62 and 2,200 at the Delhi fire wing, the strength of the Fire and Emergency Services Wing of MC is 220. There are 50 fire stations in Delhi as against seven in Chandigarh.

The members observed that the proposal to set up a fire academy in Chandigarh is not economically viable and suggested that instead of setting up the academy, training in fire fighting can be imparted to the MC staff through outsourcing.

The MC had also received a letter from the National Fire Academy, Vadodara, asking for a permission to start Firemen’s Training course in Chandigarh.

While the MC passed the agenda to set up the academy, none of these options were discussed. The objections raised by the committee were also not considered.

Mayor Kamlesh said the issue will be resolved during the House Meet in December.

“Instead of spending money on imparting training to firemen after they are recruited, the fire academy will ensure that trained personnel are hired. The MC already has the requisite equipment for it,” she said.

Last Updated on Monday, 07 December 2009 09:56
 

BBMP deploys IT for solid waste management

Friday, 20 November 2009 09:40 administrator
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Deccan Herald 20.11.2009

BBMP deploys IT for solid waste management
Bangalore, Nov 20 (PTI):

Garbage clearance and IT appear to have little in common, but not anymore, with the city corporation deploying Global Positioning System to ensure effective and systematic solid waste management.
 


Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), faced a major challenge in terms of monitoring the movement of vehicles disposing solid waste, Commissioner Bharat Lal Meena said.

With the task of collecting and disposing waste being performed by both the BBMP and contractors, it was difficult to track the vehicles used in the process.

"The BBMP decided to fit GPS system to have an accountablity of vehicles disposing solid waste", he said.

With the help of the state-owned KEONICS, BBMP has set up a comprehensive fleet management and GPS based and web based monitoring system.

Nearly 300 solid waste management contractor disposal vehicles have been fitted with the GPS. These units can be tracked by satellites and the path traced by each vehicle can be traced, along with the time and distance travelled.

"The system enables trackin of the distance travelled by each vehicle", he said. A monitoring cell could check whether a particular vehicle entered the notified dumping processing unit or not.

"When the vehicle enters the weighbridge, the system can calculate the weight of the garbage brought in and thereby the total quanty of waste generated can be worked out, Meena said.

"Dumping garbage elsewhere can be detected, so can non-picking of garbage," he said, adding the exact number of vehicles on the field can also be detected through the system.

"This system will eliminate vehicles from dumping garbage at places other than the predetermined site. It will also help in reducing cases of uncleared garbage", he said.

CCTV system has been installed in five disposal sites of the BBMP and are available for central monitoring. Each gate of the site has a digital video recorder and two weatherproof IR cameras.

Through this system, the BBMP is looking at reducing its lead bills considerably, apart from infusing accountability and streamlining solid waste disposal.

 
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